Hopeful Encounter
by KiraSnow125
Summary: Hope and Kira have been friends since childhood, every year they go to the fireworks festival in Bodhum. Separated in the purge, they become reunited after ten years. Cover Photo Illustrated by myself.
1. Promise

_So this is my first fanfic of HopexKira. Before I get questions, Kira is my character, and has been for years. I have had a fan girl crush on Hope Estheim for awhile, and I've been thinking about how to write a good fan fiction for me and fans. It's going to be in chapters, so I hope all of you followers bear with me until the end. Enjoy! :3_

_P.s. Comments and suggestions are appreciated! _

**Chapter 1: -Promise-**

The sun was setting and the town of Bodhum was bustling with people preparing for the annual fireworks festival. Crowds were gathering at the shores eagerly waiting for the show to start. Two however, stood away from the crowd; sitting on a soft patch of grass, they waited for the fireworks to start.

"Kira, do you think that my father will show up?" The silver- eyed boy asked the girl sitting next to him. She placed her hand on top of his and looked at him sweetly.

"I'm sure he will Hope; but he's always busy working." She tried to reassure him, but all he did was sigh.

"He's never around so how can I believe that he'll show up? I never believe a word he promises anymore. My mom's the only one who wants him to be here anyway. I can't stand him anymore." He looked down at the ground and sighed again. She looked at him with distraught.

"Hope?"

"Hmm?" He looked up, but only for a second before Kira tackled him to the ground. "Wha-?!"

"Stop being sad! You can be so grouchy sometimes and I can't stand it. When you get upset it makes me upset; so be happy!" She smiled at him as she held him down. He looked up at her with his emerald puppy dog eyes; A faint smile crossing his lips and Hope pulled Kira closer to his own self. Her face flushed a bright pink as she felt his sweet breath on her face.

"Hi..." she stuttered out the one syllable word. Kira touched her nose tentatively to his. Hope tangled one hand in her hair and his other held her back. He brushed her lips with his slightly. Kira's face grew hot, and kissed him back intensely and lovingly. She had to pull away for a breath of air so she wouldn't suffocate from his kisses.

"Hey." He breathed when their lips parted

"Hope... I'm sorry, I don't know what got into me." She quickly jumped off of him and sat on her knees. Hope sat up, his face full of concern.

"Why are you sorry? You made me happy." He gently laid his hand on her cheek. Kira cast her eyes over to the shoreline and the crowds it drew. "Kira." No response. "Kira please listen to me. For the past 10 years, you have been the most important person in my life. The past year I promised myself that I would protect you from anything bad. Please just look at me." She turned her head to looked at Hope; and his puppy dog eyes stared at hers with longing and sadness. "I promise that if anything ever happens and we end up getting separated, I'll come back for you ok?" He smiled gently as she pressed her cheek into his hand.

"Ok. I believe you Hope. I'll wait for you, that's a promise."

A loud bang went off overhead, the whistling of sparks dancing, then dying out. Kira jumped out of shock, she quickly found herself clinging to Hope out of reflex.

"You're not scared are you?" The silver haired boy laughing at her sudden cowardice.

"I'm not scared! The fireworks just startled me, I wasn't prepared for them!" She retorted; her words felt bitter as she spat them at him. Her brown eyes glowered at him while he continued to laugh at her. **He thinks I'm funny!** She pushed him down as she jumped up, ready to go by the shore to watch the brilliant spectacle.

"Hey, hey! I didn't mean to piss you off like that." He stood up next to her, trying his hardest to calm her down.

"Let's just go enjoy the fireworks!" She turned to face him, a smile flashed across her face before it turned into child- like excited ness. "This year's going to be different, I know it!" She took Hope's hand in an effort to get him over to the crowds. He stood his ground stubbornly.

"But I kinda' like it over here better, there's so many people over there..." He groaned and rolled his emerald eyes at the thought of pushing past all of the people just to find his mother.

"Hope, please...?" Kira kissed his cheek lightly and teasingly. "Let's go closer to shore so we can get a better view and find you'r mom."

"Ok fine. Only so we can find my mom." He snorted. Both walked up to the crowds of people watching the massive explosions of light overhead. Hope as polite as he could, pushed past individuals in effort to find his mother. "Mom?" He called. He kept pushing past people, and finally he found his mother standing on the sand.

"Hope, you're father called and said he won't be able to make it; but I hope you don't mind that." His mother smiled, her smile seemed to soothe Hope's nerves.

"Hope! Nora!" Kira panted and stumbled up to the mother and son. "I had to push past so many people that were so rude!"

"There you are Kira, I was wondering where you were." Nora, Hope's mother smiled. The three stood there watching the fireworks explode in all shapes and colors; enjoying a blissful moment. Kira fished around in her bag to find her camera, as to capture the happy moments. To her dismay, she was unable to find it.

"Hope? Have you seen my camera? I didn't leave it back on the airship that we came in did I?"

"I haven't seen it since we got off."

"Oh..." she sighed, her black hair covered her eyes. "Well... I'm pretty hungry. I'll go get us some food okay? I'll be right back!" She smiled and left the mother and son to find some food. As she walked, her thoughts wandered. Wandered to the future, of what will happen between Hope and herself.

Across the beach, she could see airships land with an unusual amount of Psicom soldiers. Kira snuck up to eavesdrop on their conversations.

"A pulse Fal'cie has been confirmed sir."

"Get all of the troops stationed for a mandatory sanction; keep it as quiet and secret as possible. We don't know if anybody here has been branded L'cie."

"Yes sir."

The idea of food disappeared from her mind in an instant; panic took it's place and a gut wrenching feeling of disaster filled her stomach. She crept from her hiding place and walked briskly back to the shore. When she approached Hope and Nora, she tried to act as calm and collected as possible.

"Hope!" She hissed in his ear. He jumped, realizing that Kira had snuck up on her unknowingly. "We have to get out of here quick! The Psicom are going to quarantine this whole area! We gotta go to our little hide- out fort we made years ago! They won't find us there."

"What? I can't hear you very well over the fireworks."

"We gotta go to the hide- out! As soon-" she was cut off by a woman screaming. Psicom soldiers had advanced on the crowd, rounding up as many people as possible. Kira panicked. "Hope!"

"Go to the hide- out! I'll meet you there as soon as possible!" He commanded. A Psicom soldier grabbed him and took his mother by the wrist. Kira was grabbed at the waist by a burly looking man in a trench coat.

"HOPE!" She screamed in desperation; a woman with pink hair and a gun-blade pistol whipped the two Psicom holding Hope and Nora.

"Kira!" He yelled at her. "I'll meet you at the hide-out, but if I don't, remember my promise!" Tears welled up in her eyes as she reached for him one last time.

"I love you Hope!" She cried and screamed to him at the same time. He looked at her, fear was emanating from his self and his body trembled.

"I love you too Kira!" She smiled weakly at him, then ran off to the hide- out.

~ KiraSnow


	2. Shattered

_Now that chapter one is released, I'm proud to present chapter 2! I hope it was good enough for you (readers), and I'm still an amateur at this, but I'm trying my hardest with it. Comments and suggestions appreciated. Chapter two will be more focused on Kira, ten years in the future. Though I will fill in the gaps of those 10 years in flashbacks (oh joy!) Hopefully you (readers) will grow like Hope and Kira as a couple; though HopexLight are still really cute. This is my spin on things. Enjoy! c;_

_P.s. this chapter is pretty short; sorry about that._

**Chapter 2: -Shattered-**

She woke with a start; her usually straight black hair now a tangled and matted mess, and her head spinning from a recurring nightmare (that also happened to be a memory). The year was 10 af; ten years after the fall of cocoon, the crystal pillar saving it, and elimination of corrupt Fal'cie tyranny.

She groaned and rolled over in her bed, Yuki, her cat jumped onto the middle of her back unceremoniously.

"Yuki..." She snorted with sleepy disgust. "What do you want? I'm trying to sleep!" Yuki pawed at her back and mewled for her attention. **Damn cat; can't get any sleep around here.** Kira rolled over to throw her cat off of her back; the white cat mewed in defiance and jumped onto the floor. She sat in bed, her head foggy and grogginess not clearing. Her eyes flicked toward her alarm clock, the time said 7:45.

"Oh crap! I overslept!" She exclaimed aloud. Kira leapt out of bed, and scrambled to the shower. As quick as lightning*, she jumped out of the shower and threw her clothes on. Yuki meowed again to get her owners attention. "Yeah yeah cat; I've got your food." She sat the cat's food dish on the floor gently and Yuki ran up to the food dish. Kira finished getting ready and dashed out the door.

**I'm gonna get yelled at for this.** She sprinted the block to the restaurant she worked at. By the time she reached the place, her lungs felt as if they would explode, her throat burned from the running.

The day crawled at an infants pace. At quarter to 6, three men walked into the restaurant. By the looks of their clothes, they were men of the Academy.

"Fifteen minutes until shift's over..." She sighed deeply. 'on top of that, Academy men.' She was jolted out of her thoughts by one of the mens' voice.

"Hey sweetie, can we get a table for four?"

"I presume that the fourth will be coming in?" Her voice cool as ice, Kira narrowed her eyes.

"Yes girlie, The director will be in shortly. He's the one that's paying as well."

**Oh great. Not only am I catering to these Academy men, but the director of the whole Academy itself**. Kira gathered up four menus and took the men to a table by a window.

"Would you like anything to drink? Or are you going to wait?"

"Let's start with some beers." One told her.

"Yes; okay." She tried to keep a smile on her face. Kira turned around and walked over to the bar. "Xavier, make it our yaschas special. Let's make sure that they can't walk home straight tonight." She winked.

Twenty minutes later, all three of the men were drunk, still waiting on the fourth; Kira decided to go ahead and have them order food.

"Hey girlie! Come and show us how they serve on Pulse!" The man (who, continuously over the course of their dining kept hitting on her) cooed.

"I beg your pardon sir?"

"Come and give me a show! I'll give you an extra tip."

"Sir I'm sorry, but we don't do that kind of thing here. This is a fine dining restaurant. If you want a lap dance, go down to Hidden Serendipity."

"Will you just listen to me?!" He grabbed her wrist with force and pulled her over to him. Kira twisted her wrist to release his grip on her; she then struck him across his cheek. For a few seconds, the Academy man was dazed, he quickly regained his drunkard composure and raised his hand to strike her. She winced, bracing herself for the blow that would most likely leave a red mark for a week on her face. After a moment, she realized something had interrupted the man's action. She opened her eyes slightly to see a man standing over her and holding her attacker's wrist.

"Alex, you know better than to strike young ladies when you don't get your way don't you?" Her savior scolded. His emerald eyes filled with disappointment, he stared at the other two men. "You all stink of alcohol, and while you're still on duty. You can pay for your own drinks." The men looked down at the table, ashamed by their actions, they said nothing in reply. Her savior turned around and his expression changed from anger to sympathy in a fraction of a second. "I'm sorry miss, they didn't do anything offending to you, did they?" His emerald eyes gave her that familiar puppy dog look; Kira gasped and turned away quickly.

"N-no sir. No problems at all. But please excuse me, Elicia will be your server for the rest of the evening." Her eyes welled up with tears and her voice broke a tiny bit. Kira walked away from the table and out of the restaurant.

The man stood there, taken aback by her sudden actions. The familiarity of that woman bothered him, he had to figure out who she was.

"Director Estheim, do you know Kira?" The new waitress, Elicia asked politely. "She acted as if she knows you, and wasn't very thrilled at seeing you."

"Did you say Kira?" His eyes widened as his cheat began to pound.

"Yes sir; Kira Snow." Elicia smiled.

"Not to sound weird, but may I have her address?"

"Umm... Yes sir... She only lives a block away, Archylte steppe apartments, number 13a."

"Thank you." Hope took the address.

~KiraSnow

lightning*- as in fast, not Lightning the character.


	3. Reunion

_Yay! Chapter three! This is the chapter I've been looking forward to the most. It's been kind of hard to think of ways that Kira and Hope would reunite, but I like this idea. If you were wondering where Kira works, I will be explaining it in a different little "story". The name of the restaurant is called Dining on Pulse though. _

_Anyway; this whole time I've been typing this on my phone, not a PC so the spelling errors: bear with me! I've been using two apps, "Inkpad Notepad" and "Quick Office". They work wonders! Comments and suggestions appreciated, PM me you would like and I could possibly make a character and add them in for anybody interested. _

**Chapter 3: -Reunion-**

Kira ran back to her apartment. Her mind swirling with memories, doubts, and embarrassment. Fumbling with the keys, she managed to unlock her door and stumble in to her home. Yuki greeted her with a high pitched meow and a rub on her legs. Kira acknowledged her presence with a pet on the head, she then walked into her bedroom.

Her work clothes flew across her bedroom and onto a pile of dirty laundry on the floor. She quickly changed into a pair of pants good for lounging in and a loose fitting V-neck tee. Not being able to fight then any longer, tears burst from her eyes.

"I can't believe that I did what I did! I'm going to loose my job for sure Yuki!" Make- up smeared as tears washed it off her face, kira half- assedly wiped it off with the back of her hand. Yuki just meowed at her. Lack of sleep and exhaustion had taken their toll on Kira; she threw herself on her couch in an effort to get some much needed rest.

_**"In further news, a group of six L'cie have been terrorizing the area of Palumpolum. It seems as if they are trying eliminate all of the Psicom officers, and are attacking citizens. Extra deployment of Psicom and military ai's have been stationed around the residential and business areas. Advice is to stay indoors or in a safe location. Engagement with these L'cie will most likely end in death. Stay out of their way, the military is trying their best to help with the situation." Pictures of the L'cie's flashed across the screen. The last picture was of a man in a trench coat with blonde hair; very muscular and tall. The other, a boy in his teens with short silver hair, a patterned neckerchief, and emerald eyes.**_

_**"Hope!" Her voice raised and tears started to flow down her cheeks.**_

A soft knock at the door roused Kira from her nap; she groaned, smoothed her hair down, fixed her bunched up clothes, and walked half- asleep to the door. She pushed the videocom button to see who was standing outside of her home.

The man from the restaurant with silver hair stood outside of her door; a nervous look on his face. Anxiety slapped Kira across the face, fully awake, she tentatively touched the telecom button.

"Who is it?" Trying to keep her voice from shaking, she pinched her own arm.

"Um Kira? Is this the residence of Kira Snow?" He fidgeted and took a step back from the door.

"Yes it is? To whom am I speaking to?" Her eyebrow raised, she inquired. The silver haired man swallowed hard.

"Hope."

Kira opened the door to see him standing in Academy garb; he looked at her softly and to her relief she didn't start crying.

"Hope...? It is really you, isn't it?" Her voice was shaky, and she made no effort to steady it.

"Kira, I'm so sorry for showing up like this." His eyes went down to the ground and made that puppy expression.

"It's been years! And the way we first meet up again sucked! I hate the Academy! They used to be Psicom and those are who separated us in the first place!" Anger swelled inside of her. "And now I come to find that you're the director of it?!" Hope stood on the spot, shocked that the animosity towards him was so great. After three minutes of yelling, Kira's thunderstorm turned into a rainstorm. Tears fell like a waterfall from salt stung eyes.

"I tried to find you, just, everywhere I thought you might be, you weren't. I've been looking for you for these past ten years, and don't think that I wasn't. When I was a L'cie, one of the only things that kept me going was the thought of seeing you again. I promised that if we got separated, I'd come back for you, didn't I?" He wiped her tears from her face and wrapped his arms around her. Kissing the top of her head, Hope held Kira in a tight embrace.

"You did... but it's been ten years Hope!" Words were hardly recognizable through her sobbing and blubbering.

"I know Kira, I know. I really did try to find you; then I got swept up in all of the Academy business and everything." His hands smoothed her bangs back from her face, and tucked them gently behind her ears. "You're so beautiful." He admired the woman that he held in his arms.

"Th- thank you..." her face flushed red, and her cheeks grew hot; she hadn't been complimented in that way for years. Staring eyes prickled at the back of Kira's neck; **Ugh. My nosy neighbors. **"Hope...?"

"Hmm?" His head rested on her shoulders.

"Can we go into my apartment? I have some nosy and gossipy neighbors."

"Uh, okay." He abruptly let go of Kira and straightened his back. Stepping aside, she held her arm out to show him into her apartment.

"It's not much, but it is my home" Yuki jumped up at Kira, meowing obnoxiously. Hope chuckled at the cat's action, but quickly went back to observing her home.

"I like you're apartment though, it's just so... so..."

"Small?"

"I was going to say 'uniquely you', but you finished my sentence for me."

"I'm sure you're house is much bigger than mine; Director." She jeered

"Hardly, I haven't really had the need for a house, I just sleep in my office. I don't leave it very often so I had an addition made to it." He admitted openly.

"Oh? Well..." she looked around for things to straighten up. "You can stay here if you want." Her voice completely flat.

"Really? I'm not intruding on your private life am I?"

"Unless you call playing with Yuki the brat and watching TV a private life."

"Not really; but I am almost always working, so I may not be around so often. I do have a bunch of vacation days stacked up though."

"Vacation days? You don't go on any?"

"Haven't had the need to; I don't have anybody to be with in what little spare time I have, so why would I go on a vacation?"

"What about those three assholes you were with earlier?"

"They just wanted to get me a date; I told them I didn't want to, but they insisted. I told them I would pay; but that never happened." He sighed and slouched on the couch. Kira sat down next to him,hands on her thighs and her back straight, as if posing for a formal picture. "Kira?" Hope looked over her worriedly, he didn't want to make her feel uncomfortable in her own home.

"Yeah?" Her reply came quick. She turned her head to look at him, her expression blank.

"I'm not- This isn't making you uncomfortable is it?" Hope's puppy dog eyes stared into her own, chocolate colored eyes, searching for some way to comfort her.

"No. Why would you think that?" She laughed nervously. "I'm fine." Making a noticeably forced smile, Kira tried to convince Hope that she wasn't having a miniature anxiety attack.

"Kira, You're a terrible liar. It's okay if you're uncomfortable, it's your own home and I'm a guest." Hope rose to his feet and walked slowly to the door, partially dragging his feet. Kira leapt up and scrambled in front of the door before he could reach it.

"I'm fine! Really I am. I'm just so nervous around you now, I don't know what to do; You've changed so much..." Kira's eyes went from looking Hope straight in the eyes to looking straight at the floor. She was unsure of his reaction to what she had just blurted out. Hope stared back at her with a disappointed look.

"To you maybe I've changed a lot, but I'm still the same old Hope you've known since childhood. After we parted, I promised myself that I wouldn't touch another girl until I found you again. I still love you Kira. Please believe me." He pleaded to her, trying not to upset her more than she was already, but just to make her understand his point.

"Hope... please don't leave. I don't know how I would handle myself if you disappeared again." Kira hugged him tightly for a second, then pulled away to look at him. "I still love you as well." She admitted, her face bright pink. Hope's whole face light up with happiness; he picked Kira up off of the floor and kissed her sweetly as he held her. Kira threw her arms around Hope's neck in response and kissed him back just as sweetly.

"I'm so happy I found you again. I'm so glad that you're safe too." He kept on smiling as he put her down and they both walked over and sat on the couch. Kira laid her head on Hope's shoulder while cuddling up to him. With his arm wrapped around her waist, Hope pulled Kira closer to himself and closed his eyes in sleepy contentedness. Kira slowly closed her eyes and drifted off to a blissful sleep.

~KiraSnow


End file.
